Japan's Otsuka to buy Astex Pharma for about $900 million: Nikkei

Japanese drugmaker Otsuka Holdings Co will buy Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc for about 90 billion yen ($900 million) to tap the cancer drugs the U.S. company is developing, the Nikkei said. (link.reuters.com/hed82v)

Shares of Astex, which has a market capitalization of $634.2 million as of Tuesday close, rose as much as 41 percent to a nine-year high of $9.39 on the Nasdaq.